Vom innerjüdischen Appell zur öffentlichen Kampagne. Joel Bril Löwes Sendschreiben an die Brüderschaften und der Beerdigungsfristenstreit in Breslau, 1793–1800

Abstract

Abstract The danger of burying only apparently dead bodies when following the Jewish custom to bury the deceased within a day was a hotly debated topic in the eighteenth century. Joel Bril Löwe participated in this debate with an open letter to the burial brotherhoods of all Jewish communities. The article reconstructs the dispute between the traditionalists, who argued for the Jewish custom of immediate burial, and the modernizers, who argued for its abandonment. Despite Löwe’s efforts to mediate between the fronts and to convince everyone to allow three days until the funeral were not successful, the dispute escalated, particularly in Breslau. In a number of German and Hebrew journals, Jewish supporters of the three-day limit ran campaigns, some of them rather aggressive, which led to the founding of new burial societies and attracted the attention of the Prussian authorities. The practice of early burial could only be brought to an end by state order.